Patricia Marx writes comedy because she is too shallow to do anything else. She writes for film and television; she also writes books and magazine pieces. Her television credits include Saturday Night Live and Rugrats. Among her books are How To Regain Your Virginity, Blockbuster, and several children’s books illustrated by cartoonist Roz Chast, including Now Everybody Really Hates Me and Meet My Staff, winner of the Friedrich Medal (an award made up by Patricia Marx and named after her air-conditioner). Patricia Marx’s writing has appeared in the New Yorker, the New York Times, Vogue, and the Atlantic Monthly. She would rather not talk about her film credits (a view shared, apparently, by various studio executives). Patricia Marx teaches sketch comedy at New York University. She was the first girl on the Harvard Lampoon. She is able to take a baked potato out of the oven with her bare hand.

Patricia Marx is neither the Patricia Marx married to Daniel Ellsberg, who changed history when he released the Pentagon Papers; nor is she the ravishing young Brazilian singer Patricia Marx whose popular albums contain a blend of hip hop, funk, Bossa Nova, and even some great make-out music. She would like to be mistaken for either of these women.